"People Suck; Love Them Anyway"

Hope Dealer or Faith Builder?

We are back after 2 weeks of Father’s Day and VBS to ask the question: are you a hope dealer or a faith builder? Does your walk with Christ match how you’re presenting; do you really have it all together? It takes faith and patience to follow the process that leads to progress in order to see prayers answered.

Duration:: 47m
Broadcast on:: 30 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Even when you feel low, you can still go Even when you feel slow, you can still go Even when there's no hope, you can still go I never ran so to know, man, I still go Yo, what's going on? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages that you host us with the most is it's PKR, Pastor Keenan Riley and we are back with another episode of People Suck Love 'em Anyways, man, we've been on a it's been a while, man, it's been a while, man, uh, it's been a while since I've gone and things up and just like I always did it's stained, man, that's who it is, man, Aaron Lewis, shout out Aaron Lewis uh, yeah, so it has been a minute, uh, a couple of weeks off uh, Father's Day, VBS, things like that uh, stuff going on in the church world and uh, yeah, we just took a couple of weeks off to kind of uh, do our thing here and um, so we actually, uh, I don't know if you're gonna make it to the float today or not, I am not, uh, but uh, we actually have about 30 minutes yeah, man, we actually have some church members that are uh, floating alike today uh, this afternoon and so uh, yeah, but uh, we skipped out on that, it's like we cannot miss three weeks in a row uh, that point we might as well just quit right, yeah, uh, of an episode uh, yeah, so at that point you're just like man, like psh, whatever, you know, so kind of crazy to form a routine they always say it takes 21 days to make a habit uh, but it seems like it only takes like once or twice to miss that habit, you know, so it's definitely a lot easier to break it than what it is to make it, I feel like um, so uh, right, I mean, thousand percent uh, so thank you guys uh, for tuning in for hanging out with us uh, we're glad to be back, glad to talk about some stuff today, hopefully it'll help you out along the way uh, had any new downloads or any new countries or anything while we've been out uh, well um, thanks to uh, miss Julie uh, we got some Montana downloads finally, so we're rocking it out there in Montana uh, so hopefully that'll read, we actually did have um, somebody listening quite a bit uh, from Colorado, so yeah, um, you know, if you're listening, you want us to give us a shout out on Facebook or a message on our email or something like that, that'd be cool, just kind of hear about you, where you're from, why you're listening, who got you listening, why you started listening yeah, was you just randomly thumbing through the podcast and was like, these people right here um, yeah, these people are the kind of people I could smoke weed in this little podcast world, like I'm just kidding, I feel you, but yeah, it's uh, it was pretty cool though, I mean, there was, there's quite a few downloads out there in Colorado, so somebody out there had to have, uh, really dug deep on us, but yeah, it's for real, it's cool man uh, just again, just to know that uh, somewhere, you know, whether it's in America or the world uh, that you're talking about some uh, some relative issues uh, and a lot of Jesus and uh, how we're gonna get through this type situation and things like that, and so, you know, just to know that uh, maybe we're helping one person, two people, five people, it's in people, who knows, uh, hundred people uh, you never know man, we just, we're just thankful to be able to do this uh, to have the means to do this, it's, it's pretty cool man, and so again, pretty productive last couple of weeks, not really on the podcast, but uh, just you know, around the church world and things like that, many different stuff we're doing um, and you know, today uh, we bounced back into uh, you know, sermons and preaching and talking about the Holy Spirit and things like that, and uh, we'll try to unpack a little bit of that in the time frame that we have uh, in this moment in time, but I think it's a hot button issue, Nick, that we talk a lot about uh, in the church world um, that we need to get better at, but gosh dang it darn at the heck, if we, if we do get better at it, who knows, you know, uh, I don't feel like we do, I feel like that uh, you know, really the main number one reason it's called hypocrisy uh, but uh, really the main number one reason why people who uh, don't come to church or don't step foot inside a church uh, which I feel like the mentality is a little flawed anyways uh, but the number one reason, you know, they say that there's a bunch of hypocrites that sit in the church place and, and we'll be honest with you, I agree with you a hundred and twenty seven percent uh, I feel like that most of us that sit, no, notice I said us, not most of the people, us, I'm talking about myself too um, I feel like most of us who sit inside of church houses on sunday mornings are hypocrites because we do our uh, we do our best uh, to, I feel like live for jesus, yeah right to live for jesus and uh, and we fail, we fail a lot, we fail monday through sunday, we fail every day at something and um, I don't know about you man, I come to church to uh, to try to get things right, to be, to be inspired, to be motivated to change uh, to go deeper with jesus, you know, to get fed, to fellowship, to have a good time, whatever, you know, there's a lot of different reasons why I come to the house of God, but um, you know, I think that's one thing that, that we have to look at to say, you know, the mentality of, well, there's just a bunch of hypocrites in church, um, you know, we, you can have that mentality, but I, I think that's a false narrative as to why you truly don't go. There's a hurt, there's a pain, there's a, there's a cause in there somewhere, why you don't step in and uh, you know, that's another day, another story um, but for us on the inside of things uh, we really looked at today about, about, does our walk, which you know, our relationship with Jesus, does it match up with what we're saying, with what we're posting or with what we're, you know, with how we're acting or whatever, whatever our talk is out there in the world. I'm a Christian, look at me or I'm a Christian, I do this or I'm a Christian, I do that and it's like, yeah, that's cool, you could say that, but are the actions matching up? Are, is your lifestyle matching up? Is your thought process matching up? And um, I'll be honest with you, I've never been a person that's been real, uh, Christiany. I don't know how, is that a, is that a good terminology, you're a good descriptive, uh, yeah, um, yeah, I guess stereotypical Christian, I guess would be, it would be a good way, uh, to say that. Um, I've, I've never tried to, to, to present myself, I almost had a bad moment. Uh, I was trying to be waiting a little bit longer. Yeah. You know, uh, I've never tried to present myself as somebody who was perfect or on the way to perfection or anything else. You know, I've always tried to relate to people and say, hey, look, like I am flawed. I am broken. I'm a mess. I'm a train wreck and a ditch and a dumpster fire, like pretty much. And, but God still chooses to love and to use. Like that's an amazing thing. Um, and I find that if you come at people with more of that angle, uh, versus, you know, the angle of, oh, look at me and look at my accomplishments and look what I've done and look where I've been and things like that. This is what you should aspire to be. Yes. This is what you should be working. Yes. Things like that. Right. Whenever you kind of come at that lifestyle and the fact of that, like, look, man, we're all messed up. We're all broken. We're all just jacked, you know, three way sideways. Um, but God's grace, love and mercy comes at us in such a way that it can still use our brokenness to bless people or to bless the situation. Um, I think that really, really speaks to who he is and what he can do, uh, through us. But we really unpack that today about how we need to make sure that we're living our life accordingly, uh, the best way possible as we can to what the word says. Yeah. And I really, um, one thing that you kind of spoke about today, and it was kind of an illustration that you made. And I really hope a lot of people had stuck with them and they understood it the way that I did, um, was, you know, the mindset of how many people come into, you know, a church, um, and you know, to see, you know, from the outside, looks like they're doing the Christian thing, but they're not putting the actual work in. Uh, you mentioned a couple examples. One of, you know, how many of us would go to the gym every day a week for an hour, walk in, stand there, do nothing and then walk out on the outside. People were seeing us go to the gym every day. We're posting at the gym every day, but then when someone looks at you and they don't see any actual progress, they don't see any actual changes being made, they're going to question, well, what are you doing there? Right. Um, you know, and it was the same way as, you know, if you're walking into a church, you know, and you're coming in every single day or every single sunday, every single week, you know, and you're, you're putting the time in, you're posting about it on Facebook, checking in on Facebook, um, but people noticed that you're still angry, you're still judgmental, you're still frustrated, you're still, uh, broken into despair and, and all these sorts of things, and you're still cussing people out at McDonald's and you're still doing this, that and the other, like, you know, it's that matter of, you know, if, if we wouldn't go to a gym and stand there and do nothing and pay for membership to do that, why would we come into a church building and stand here and do nothing and get nothing out of it and go, and go no deeper and grow no more. Uh, and so I think that was a very, very big example of that you gave today that I really kind of stuck out to me and I hope other people understood what you were saying in that, in that manner because I think it is important, uh, for, for Christians to take that into account, you know, when they're coming in here, it's not to just, you know, come in here, it's, it's to come in here to grow and to change and to go deeper with God. Well, why do you think people, if that's not the case, um, you know, if that's not the case, why do people come to church then? If it's, if it's, you know, let's, let's go back to the gym scenario just for a second. Uh, I'm a gym rat. I love the gym. I love to be there. I love to do, you know, I love to lift weights. I love to do car. I like, I just love the gym. It's my stress relief, man. It's, it's how I release a lot of, um, tension and a lot of just anxiety and things like that. I mean, that's my thing. Don't come at me. Uh, you know, pastor can't just need to pray. You know, uh, I do, uh, I do. And the, the, exactly, uh, you know, uh, hands and prayers. I've seen a shirt today that said PR or ER, you know, and I'm like, Hey, man, absolutely. Uh, that's pretty cool. But anyways, um, yeah, like, you know, if you're going to the gym and you're not putting in the work, but yet you're, you know, like you said, you're taking the selfies, you're checking in and all that good stuff. I guess you have to dig deeper. You have to dig deeper and go why or what? What is your reasoning behind that? You know, if, and, and if you're coming to church, if you're coming in and you're sitting down in the pews and you're hanging out and that's cool. Like we, we want you, we want you in church. I think every church wants people in church. I mean, that's, you know, that's, that's cool. But, you know, if you're, if you're mentality and you're, um, I don't know what, what, what would, what you would even call it, really? If you're, if your mentality is not, I'm going to come in here and I'm going to engage to grow, to grow what, to grow your faith, to grow your relationship, to grow the dynamic, the dynamics of your life. Um, you know, things like that, if you're not coming in here to do that, then why are you coming? I think it centers back to the question. Of course, we're in rural Kentucky. I get it. Um, I think a lot of people maybe who listen to this in other rural areas. Um, and, and maybe in different parts of the world, maybe you're in a small community or something like that. I know that a lot of people gather in houses of worship on Sunday, not because of the spirit, not because of the church style, maybe, or per se, but it's because of family, you know, or it's because of convenience or it's because of, you know, a checklist with expectations, yes, like what we talked about today with, um, you know, with just the, or, you know, it's the right thing to do or whatever. And, um, you know, people are funneling in and setting down and it's like, what, what the word said today that we talked about was the, was the heart position and this, um, this sensitive spirit, of, to being able to receive God's word. And so it's like whenever we come in and set down on Sundays and we got a lot going on in this place, I know we got babies crying, we got people moving, we got a door slamming, we got a lot going on and it's crazy in here, but we can't let those distractions, you know, keep us away from what God wants to generally do in our lives. And he wants to increase our faith. He wants to make our relationship better. He wants to make us better. Uh, so we can help the people, other people around us and whether that's pray for them or witness to them or whatever the case is, but it's like, if we don't have that mentality, um, it's got, you know, for me, when I go to the gym, I've got a plan. Uh, you know, Mondays is, is such and such group Tuesdays is such and such group Wednesday. I'm off Thursday, such and such group Friday, such and such. I've got a plan. You know, I've got that set plan of going. I know what I'm doing. And it's like, but if you go to church, if you ask people, and I think it's a, it's an open-ended question, but it's a funny question to ask people who come to church and you go, why do you come to church for? And it, you know, to hear the, to hear the responses is hysterical sometimes. Uh, I come, uh, you know, oh man, I come because I love the atmosphere. Okay. That's cool. I like it. I think we got a good vibe in here, but what, what about the atmosphere? You know, oh man, I just, I come because everybody here just loves on you. Okay. Well, that's good. Uh, you know, I'm glad that you feel accepted when you come in. Uh, I come because I like the music. Well, that's great, man. I mean, you know, they put in time, they practice that, you know, a lot of effort goes into it. Uh, yeah. I mean, you know, it's like, we, we, we do all of that. So we're here. We are at this point in time. It's like, you know, the, the, the, to me, the response should be, I come in here to grow my faith and to grow my relationship. Um, and I feel like this is a good place to do it. You know, uh, and it's like, we, we have to ask ourselves what, what, I mean, the results that we get out of it is going to be directly associated with the work that we put into it. And, um, and I think that goes back to what you were talking about. If you're not lifting those weights and hitting those machines and, and you're not putting in the effort, whether it be in the gym or here at the church or whatever, then you're not going to see those results. And nobody is to blame. That's one huge part that we took a swing at today is that, you know, we are, we're, we're, we are all responsible for our own relationship with Jesus, regardless of who's around you and your friends and what church you go to. And you know, what, what dynamic you're in, you personally are still responsible for your relationship with Jesus. I mean, I think we, I think we, a big part of what we've been talking about, uh, so far is really just a matter of, you know, doing things for other people versus doing them for yourself and being authentic. I mean, I think that we, we really struggle with, you know, like we, we take, we go to the gym and we post pictures so that way everybody knows we're working out. We look like we're working out. We, you know, when we get that new car, you know, we, we tow post pictures of it, just show that we're doing well. When we get that new house, we get that new job, we post pictures about a show people that we're doing well. Um, but we, we neglect so often to actually be authentic, to be realistic, to really be open and honest about who we are, what we're dealing with, what we're struggling with. Um, you know, about the efforts it took to get to that point, uh, you know, to, to obtain what you've been blessed with and, or, you know, and all those sorts of things. We're, we're so, um, I guess, how do we say results driven as much as we're just like driven? I guess, you know, we, we want the likes. We want the reactions. We want the, I feel like we want the results without the work, without the direct work that goes into it. And that's why, and this is a whole other tangent that I'm not going to get on, but I mean, that's, that's why you have this, um, you know, you have like, um, liposuction and things like that. Like you have these, you have these body altering surgeries that, you know, literally you can go to the gym, you can eat right, you can do what you need to do. You can exercise, you can, like, you know, you can get there, but why would I get there and put in all that effort? If I can just go have some stuff sucked off of me, cut off of me. Yeah. Or, or yeah, or, or, you know, maybe take a shot or whatever. And it's like, so we're, we're trying to, you know, we're trying to cut corners to get the same results as to somebody who's directly put in the work to get there. Um, and, and again, we talked about that as well, about how, you know, we're all on different journeys in this process. And so, whether you're day one Christian or day 31,000 Christian, I don't even know how many years I started, I said that. And then after I said that, I was like, that's like, what? Like a thousand years old or so. I don't know. We're not going to have. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm like, man, I'm like, that's a lot of days, Keenan. Let's back that up a little bit. Um, maybe, maybe your day 300 Christian. What about that? We'll say that. Uh, so, you know, whether you're day one or day 301, it doesn't really matter. We're all on this journey, you know, in, in our destination is the same if we're Christians, we're going to heaven, but you know, the, um, the, the length and the duration of, of how long we've been here may be totally different. And so, you know, we gave the example today of like, you got somebody that's super Christian in your super, uh, spiritual. Um, and you may love the way they worship or you may, you know, you may be like, man, I want to preach like that one day. I want to sing like that or I want to worship like that. And, you know, and, and, but then you talk to the people and you're like, man, you're like, how do you do that or how this? And it's like, man, there's a huge backstory in there. Uh, there's a huge, there's hurt, there's pain, there's betrayal, there's, there's a lot of different things. You know, it's like that position your heart to get there to totally rely on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And there was a lot of work that went into it. And, uh, you know, so it's like the same way in the gym. It's like you look at this guy who's like just buffed up and you're like, man, how'd you get like that steroids? Uh, no. Uh, so, you know, and it's like, Oh man, right. Yeah. Yeah. So you know, you work hard, you pump weights, man, you eat right, whatever the case is. And, you know, you may be on day one. What, day two, are you going to look like that? No, absolutely not. Um, I know, right. And so there's a, what we've talked about today, the Bible is a, is a process. It's not progress. It's process, man. You got, you got to just keep stepping and chipping away at this thing piece by piece, moment by moment, day by day. Patient process for inpatient. It is, man. And that's why I like, that's why I truly do think that a lot of people give up on God. I, I do. I think that our patients level, you know, I know we're coming out of EBS, talked about fruits of the spirit. But our patients level with God, man, I mean, our patients with people suck. I mean, we've talked about that too, but our, our patients with God is, is just equally as bad. Um, because we, if not worse, because, you know, God's timing, man, and the way God wants to do something and how he's going to do it and how he's going to orchestrate it, we don't know, you know, and the whole level of faith that we have to get to is just trusting that when we don't know, he does. And, and I read a quote today, man, um, that are not really a quote. It was just in the, um, uh, in the devotional I was reading, um, it said, if you have a foot in yesterday and a foot in tomorrow, then you have nothing to contribute today to, to, to today. God, what am I doing? Um, so let me say that one more time because everybody's like, to, to, to, to, to what? Give it a second, you'll mind my time. I know, man, like they may call me up to replace him. Uh, if you have a foot in yesterday and a foot in tomorrow, then you have nothing to contribute to today. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, man, you know, and that's true. Like, if you're worried about yesterday, you can't change it. We're about tomorrow. I don't know if you're going to make it. Well, if you're always absent minded from the place that you're in and the time that you're in, then what are we doing? How are we contributing? Um, goes back to church, you know, we're sitting in church and I know there's a lot going on, but, um, you know, if we're sitting in church and, and the pastor's preaching or the worship team is singing and, or somebody's given a message or whatever and you're 50 miles away, even though you're present work tomorrow. Yeah. About 16 meetings this week. Right. And you're absent. You're absent from the process. You're here physically, but you have checked out mentally. You have no clue what's going on, what's being said. And it's like, you leave, and you're like, maybe church just isn't for me. And it's like, you're not giving it a fair shake because you're not, you're not engaging. You're not, you're not putting in the time and the effort. Uh, you know, and you don't have the openness, uh, to, to be able to say, look, I'm going to come in here. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to give it a chance and we're going to see what happens. See what happens. Yeah, actually. And we, I mean, it's just one of those things. We, we get so impatient because we don't get the results we want. We, and they, we joke about it, talk about it a lot, but you know, I really do think that, uh, you know, we, we struggle with the idea of seeing God as a genie. You know, we, we want, you know, we think, and I think this is a, a problem is you always say, you know, critiquing the modern church. And we, as you said, you know, you've listened to a lot of preachers or pastors who are motivators and inspires, um, you know, where they, they say, you know, or like Joel's team, live your best life today, you know, like with a smile on his face. Um, you know, and so we, and it's easy, man. I'm not going to attack Joel, man, because I mean, Joe has a persona about him and a lot of people hate on him. Like I get it. Um, but like it's easy to say, Joel, whenever, you know, you've got 50 mill in the bank and you're driving a Ferrari to church, you know, it's, it's, it's live your best life. You know, and it's like, people you wouldn't let in the, uh, after Katrina, you know, I'm sure they were living their best life. Yeah. And so, you know, I'm like, man, I'm like, that is so, it's, it, to me, that is the, the hypocrisy of what keeps people out of church, you know, it's like, leave your best life. And it's like, bro, I am struggling. Uh, that's the reason why I think like a lot of people, again, I say one of the best compliments I can ever get in preaching is people just say, Hey, you're real and relatable. And I try to keep it real and relatable. Um, so whenever I say, Hey, I'm broke, I'm broke. Whenever I say I'm struggling, I'm struggling. Whenever I say I'm fighting with something, I'm fighting with something like I'm not going to sit up here and smile at you and go, live your best life. You know, like, I want to keep it real. I want to keep it 100 with you because I feel like we oftentimes set that unattainable, uh, Christian relationship with Jesus where it's like, you know, only Chick-fil-A and there's no, there's never any calories added because it's the Lord's chicken. And you're right. And, and it's just like, you know, oh, I've never heard a cuss word. I've never touched a bad thing. I've, I've never done anything. Oh, I'm so patient with everybody. And it's like, who are you fooling right now? Let's just be real and relatable. Like, I thought about choking somebody out yesterday, you know, uh, yeah. It's so, you know, for, for us, it's like we, you know, the word that kept coming to me today was pride. Uh, was, was that we allow our pride to build a wall in our lives to say, um, I'm good. You know, I'm, I'm good. I'm good. Don't worry about me. I'm good. Uh, I'm fantastic. Don't worry. Yeah. You know, Christian smile, Christian hair, Christian face, uh, you know, Christian space, Christian Facebook, uh, Christian music, Christian everything. And it's like, okay, that's cool. But, um, how's your life? How's your, how's your mind? How's your heart? Uh, you know, things like that. And, and if we, if we aren't prepared to have those kind of conversations, then I, I mean, that's the reason why we're not growing. I feel like individually, uh, in our relationships. Yeah. We, we just, there's something that keeps coming to me is like, you know, we, we are struggling. I think a lot with, with, again, wanting things done and that we were a microwave society. We want things done on our, on our time, when we wanted how we want it. Um, you know, it's like that Burger King mentality or, you know, have it your way type mentality. You know, I want, I want to be able to, you know, send up, you know, sit here, send a prayer up, like I'm ordering something off the menu and we want God to send it to us. Yeah. Just boom right there. Boom, bang fast. There we go. Right. Um, but you know, we, we have to have the, the patience and the faith to trust the process to see the progress because like it, there's, there's so much more that comes into play. And you know, I think we've been told like, as I was getting into earlier, you know, just that, that lie that we've been told that, you know, God wants to, to bless you right here right now in this moment with no work, no discipline, no motivation. I mean, just boom, bang. There you go. Yeah. You got, you got your blessing there laid out for you for it, for you to just have whenever you want it, whenever you need it. Um, but you know, it's just one of those things where you, it's just not how that works that way. I mean, you, you look throughout the Bible, you know, it's just, you know, you, we see, even when you're reading the Bible, I think we get in the mindset of, you know, we read the Bible and then we see this, the story of this person who's, who's blessed, you know, you think, I think of the, um, the, the story of the, the widow or whatever with, uh, with Elijah, you know, they were starving about to kill their last meal. Yeah. He said, hey, fix the meal for me. You know, we see, oh, wow, she was blessed with food right there in the moment. You know, she didn't have to, but you, you forget about how many years before that that they were struggling. Oh, yeah. You know, how many, how many years before that were they struggling and praying to God for an answer? And when they were finally on their last leg about to give up, about to die, that's when God stepped in and answer their prayers and provided for them. Right. Um, you know, there was a process there and it took a while before they saw any progress towards a better life. Um, but again, we, we as Christians expect that blessing right there in the moment, you know, we, we, we think, like, um, I know you're not going to get this reference, but like serious black from Harry Potter, we're like, I did my waiting six years of it. Like we were sitting there like I did all this waiting. I wouldn't you think I would get that. I don't know. I just don't expect you to watch Harry Potter. It just doesn't seem like I did. I didn't get it. Um, I didn't watch Harry Potter, though. I did. But, um, as Gary Oldman in his character, uh, but he was in prison for six years. I think it was six might have been even longer than I remember anyway. Uh, you'll get the reference if you know what I'm talking about. There's a lot, a lot of time to talk about that. But anyway, uh, you know, we, we get, I think as Christians, we're guilty of just thinking that we put in our time, we put in the effort like how much longer, how much more do I have to do, how much more do I have to do, how much more do I have to do, how much longer do I have to wait? Uh, you know, but again, you know, we're, we're so constantly, uh, short-changing God. I think, you know, we, we believe again, that, you know, if we do things our way, that this would be the right way, you know, I think back to the Israelites, you know, on the, in the wilderness, getting mad at Moses and Aaron because, you know, they didn't want to go back to, you know, they were, they were willing to go back into slavery in Egypt. Um, rather than wait for the promise, I mean, was God, that God was going to give them just because God wasn't going to give it to them yet. You know, and it's just like, they, they were so frustrated and those so short-sighted and I'm guilty of being short-sighted a lot of times. You know, I, I want things done right here right now. And I mean, I think we all are guilty of that. And you know, it's hard for us, you know, we want those short-term rewards, the short-term benefits. We want to be able to do something and get something back immediately that very short gratification, um, rather than, you know, waiting and saving and being patient for the long-term victories, um, because those long-term victories, um, you know, those, those are the ones that are huge and they're, they're lasting and they have bigger impact, but we oftentimes settle for short-term victories instead of waiting for long-term victories. I think that we just need to call it what it is. And it's, it's, it's a get rich quick scheme, uh, by certain individuals within the church room, uh, church world type situation where, uh, we, we prey on, and I, I don't mean we, like, as information church, but, uh, just corporate church. I think we prey on individuals that are looking for a fast, extensive way out of things. And it's like, oh, if you give this, if you do this, X, Y, Z will happen, you know, and that's why you get these, um, you know, you get these, uh, oh, there's a little friend there. Uh, that's why- I was smacking him earlier. Yeah, that's why you get these, um, you know, these, these hype, I call them hype sermons. Uh, you go to conferences and you'll get these hype sermons before they pass around the plate, the offering plates or whatever, you know, and it's like every, every huge conference I've ever been to has a hype sermon before they pass the plate, you know, and it's like, God told me to tell you, and, and, or, or, you know, uh, you know, God told me whenever I came in tonight, there was going to be 20 people give 20,000. And if 20 people gave 20,000, then God's going to match that 20,000 with 200,000, you know, and so on and so forth. And it's like, a little blue won't have to walk across it. That is totally a winter jam inside joke right there, man. And that's true. It's a true statement. And, and let's just call it what it is. Again, I say I'm the biggest modern day church critiquer that there is because I think people have fallen for that. People have fallen for that, for that, um, you know, that instant gratification, that instant snap of a finger. I give God $10 today. He's going to give me a hundred tomorrow or, you know, I, I'm going to live for God today and God will bless me for that tomorrow. And, and we feed off of people's emotions with that. And, you know, God's going to do this and God's going to do that. And the problem is that God doesn't work on our timetable. God doesn't work on our time frame. And so the dangerous part of that is, is telling somebody that. And then the next day or the next moment, you know, they're like, Hey, man, I trust a guy with that $100 and now my lights are shut off. What are we doing? You know, yeah, exactly. You told me, you know, and then, and then people are back pedaling and going, Oh, wait a minute. I didn't tell you, you know, that God, I just said God would bless you and God would, I didn't mean that God wouldn't still let them lights go off or nothing. And so then you get yourself in a weird situation where you got a lot of people pissed at the church and, and it preachers and, and, and a God and everything else. Because again, you know, to me, it's, it's a, it's a, how, how do we build collectively a, an audience, a fast audience and numbers and, you know, now, now we've got money and now we can do this and now we can do that. And it's like, why are we not backtracking and going back to the very, you know, the very start of things and going, wait a minute. I know we're building churches and we're building buildings. We've got all kinds of people running everywhere, but are we building people? Are we, are we helping people progress along to have a better relationship with Jesus? And if we're not, then, then we're basically no better than conventions and shows and things like that. I mean, that's all we're really doing in the process. And, and again, that goes back to that whole scenario of why people aren't walking into the doors to begin with. You know, it's, it's a show, it's a, it's a facade, it's a get rich quick scheme, whatever you want to call it, you know, and I had a girl, a lady text me in, in our church yesterday and say, and she just asked me the question. She said, who are some preachers that you listen to? And I said, you're not going to like my answer. And, and she's like, why? Because you don't, you just listen to yourself. And I'm like, well, that's kind of, you know, I was like, that's kind of, um, man, you know, what do you call that misogynistic maybe? Is that? No, no, no, narcissistic narcissistic. What's misogynistic is hating women? Oh, no, no, no, let's not talk about that one. He's been my home girl. I'm way back in Genesis. Yeah. So yeah, we're definitely not misogynistic at all. Narcissistic. There we go. So yeah, I'll get my cystics right here in a minute, fibrosis, but so, uh, but, uh, yeah. So with that whole situation, man, it's like, we, you know, we're, we're, I'm looking at it going a lot of people depend upon, uh, YouTube and depend upon Facebook and depend upon apps and things like that to get the word of God in. They don't want to open up the Bible. They don't want to read. They don't want to do that. Like, let me, let me be spoon fed by somebody. And, and the problem with that is, is that I do have a few people, very few, very minimal few that I will flip on and I will listen to. Um, and not, not, not long. I mean, not like two hours devoted or nothing like that, but like, you know, 10, 15 minutes, man, get some nuggets, maybe go on. Um, but I said, you know, the main reason why I don't listen to a lot of people is because, and that I do, I do go back and I'll listen to, you know, I'll listen to the sermon, uh, that we preached into things like that. Why? Because I know my heart position and I know my, my, my heart. I know my head. I know the time. I know the preparation. I know everything that went into what I was saying, you know, and, uh, so I know me, I don't know anybody else. I don't know anybody's intentions. I don't know anybody else's heart placement. I don't know the time that was spent. I don't know if somebody else wrote that sermon and gave it to him and said, here, preach this. Yeah, you know, I mean, I don't know the process behind that. I do know we got a lot of motivators out there. Do know, we got a lot of inspires that, that, that get online and say, God loves you. God's for you. God's going to take care of you. God's going to bless you. God's going to do this. God's going to move that mountain. He's going to take out Goliath and then, you know, you go to work Monday or you show up Monday and then your situation hasn't changed. And because your situation hasn't changed. Now we go back to that whole, now you're mad. Who you mad at? You mad at God. You know, you mad at God. You mad at the church. You mad at the pastor. You mad at all these people who promised you that if you just follow God, everything would be great. And it's not like that. And so that's why I feel like that, even with this podcast, I want us to be as original. I want us to be as authentic and as straightforward as possible. But I do not want this podcast or these episodes to replace your time with God or to replace your Bible reading or supplement. Yeah, exactly. It'd be like, you know, well, Nick said this or Keenan said this and I'm just so, you know, that's good enough for me today. I'm not going to know, man, like, you know, like, I want this to be a part of your daily walk. But I also want you to have the, to have the ability to be able to open up your Bible and go, all right, James chapter one, James chapter two, you know, or whatever, wherever you're at in the Bible and be able to read and decipher for yourself, you know, what God's trying to do in your life. Yeah. And as you were talking, I just want to make sure I'll tell you this because I want to because I'll forget it otherwise. Well, don't mess up the words like I did. Yeah, I won't be Joe Biden over here. Yeah. We need to find somebody else to them. We've been hitting him like three times. But anyway, so I think that one thing that we've done as the church as a whole, as the church is that we, and this is something that's very cliche, is that we're hope dealers instead of faith builders. You know, hope is very quick. It's very faint. It's fading. It's quick. It's easy to give everybody needs. Everybody's desperate for hope right now. If you look at the world right now, the one thing everybody needs is hope. Yeah. And we as Christians can sell them hope, we can be like, Hey, here's, you know, here's a, you know, get out of jail free card. You know, here's a, you know, this, here's that, you know, we're easy to sell them hope and say, Hey, things will get better. Things are going to get better. You have a better plan for your life. Nothing's going to come against you will prosper here. You know, we can, it's easy to throw that hope out there. You know, and I think, you know, a lot of Christians consider themselves hope dealers. It's on t-shirts. It's on, you know, memes. It's on whatever. You know, it's catchy. It's very catchy. It's catchy. You know, but it's, it's dangerous because, you know, hope is, is hope. Hope is not faith. You know, to me, faith is once again, like we've already said this once was like hope on steroids, right? Like, yeah, faith is hope on steroids because it's backed up by the word of God. It's by belief. It's backed up by, by work, by progress or, you know, by processes. You know, it takes time. You know, faith is not, you know, faith is believing in the unseen and believing in things you can't see, believing in things that don't make sense, believing in things that you aren't feeling right here in the moment, where hope is something you can just kind of, it's easy to say, you know, I hope I'll get a better job or I hope I'll find the right person to be in a relationship with or I hope I can get a new car or I hope I can, you know, move in and move out of my parent's house. I'm a hope I can get a good, you know, college degree. What, you know, we can throw hope so easy out there because hope is easy. Yeah. It is as hard as it is in this world today. Hope is easy. What's even harder is faith. And we as a church are hope dealers, not faith builders, you know, we're not investing in the people. We get the people in here with hope. Yeah, but we don't build them up with faith. You know, we give them hope and then we send them out the door. And again, hope is so fading that it loses its traction after a couple days and they don't know what else to do. I think we like hope because hope takes the responsibility off of us. I hope I get a better job. What do you, you know, what does that mean? Yeah, it's it's like using I get a better job as a genius. Well, well, not only not only that, but it's like, I think it gives us a false sense of security. I hope I get a better job. What are you going to do? I mean, you can't just hold your lap. Yeah, exactly. Like, you know, like it's either I have I have faith, which, you know, faith is work. I don't know if you know this or not, but faith is work, man. You strengthen your faith. That's that's what we read about today over in James chapter one. Like faith is work, man. It's it's not just, you know, saying, Oh, I believe in Jesus. I mean, okay. And what are you going to do to strengthen that faith? Because the devil's about to slap you in the mouth. And if you're not yeah, and if you're not ready, and if you don't have a faith built up in Jesus, you're going to cry, you're going to get down in the floor and you're going to be like, Don't hit me again. Don't I'll leave me alone. I won't talk about Jesus. I won't do this down. Exactly. You're going to denounce Jesus. Yeah, exactly. And say, you know, why did he allow this to happen to me? He must not be as great as I said. Right. So I think hope I think hope is attractive. And I think it's catchy. Like what we said, like a hope dealer, because it takes the responsibility off us. I just, you know, I hope I hope it's a good day. Well, what are you going to do to make it a good day? I hope I get another job. Well, what's what are you going to do? And hope it's going to be a good day. Faith is it's going to be a good day. Right. Exactly. And so in that faith is, is you putting in the work to make it a good day, or are you putting in the work to get that job, or are you putting in the work to do that? Like, I have faith, man, I'm going to believe it. I'm going to trust. And I'm going to, you know, like, so to me, faith is an action plan. But you know, hope is just like, I don't know. I mean, it's just like throwing a rock out in the middle of water somewhere and going, well, you know, I hope it hit a fish. And you don't have a clue. Like you don't, you don't know, man. And so I think that's why you can go back to what you were saying. But I think that's why a lot of people say that, like, you know, I hope or hope dealer instead of I think that's a cool line that we have become more hope dealers than faith builders, because it's just easier, you know, it's easier. And faith is whenever we go to build people's faith and we talk about building faith, it's work. It's us putting in time, not only with ourselves, but with other people. And that's what ministry is. And, you know, a lot of people, again, a lot of people want the flash, want the, you know, want the spectacle of ministry and things like that. But, you know, but then it's like, or I guess maybe, I guess maybe they want the pull pit, but not the problems type situation. And it's like, man, it's like you have no idea. You have no idea. It was funny, man. And I'll shut up and then I'll let you get back to doing what you were doing over here. But I was thinking about this this morning. I actually, I got out of the car to walk up to come into church. And, you know, I thought about ministry in itself and all the different dynamics of ministry and everything, you know, and, and, you know, if you're involved in ministry, not just one leg of it, but if you're involved in ministry, like broad ministry, you know, there's a lot that goes on. And, you know, what's funny is, is this is no joke. Like, I've been doing, we've been here, what? Almost eight years. We'll start year eight in, in August. But outside of that, man, just regular ministry, I've been in regular ministry for probably 15 years, if not more. But, you know, just fruition church wise, I got to thank it. And I thought what was funny to me is that people, people will always offer, you know, like whenever they say, are you stressed, or are you tired, or are you weary, or are you, well, take a week off and then we'll, you know, take a week off and then we'll do this, you know, like, we'll find somebody to preach or we'll do this, that, and the other, and then you come back and then it's like, you know, and I thought to myself, I thought that's funny, you know, because like, that's the one thing that I should be doing, you know what I'm saying? It would be like me walking up to Nick and being like, hey, man, take off from doing, take off from doing youth pastor tonight, man, I'll take care of it. You look weary. Don't worry about all your other responsibilities. I need you to do those. But, you know, don't worry about everything. Yeah, still do everything else. But I need you to just take a break from what you were called to do, you know, and it's like, no, let's reverse that. Let's give people a break from all the other stuff they're doing and let them focus on what they've been called to do, you know what I'm saying? Be focused on what you've been called to do. So if you've been called to youth ministry and you're like, man, I tell you what, I'm running around everywhere. Then you know what? It should be somebody's job to be like, all right, man, like, hey, let's take some weight and burden off you somewhere else. So that way you can actually be a youth minister or preacher or worship leader or, you know, whatever situation it is inside the church or inside the ministry, you know, like to step back and to think about things like that where it's like, again, going back to that pulpit problem situation. It's like, you know, it's, it's not a, oh, well, you know, I'm stressed from preaching. What? Like, no, that's what you've been called to do, you know, but what about the other 37 things? You know what I mean? It's like, let's, let's step back and take that. And so, you know, in, in ministry, man, I think people get it twisted a lot, because again, TV ministry, TV ministry, podcast, things like that, I feel like I've been a blessing, but I feel like they've been a great burden and a great misrepresentation of what ministry often is. You see a guy or lady, don't throw rocks at me. I know, yeah. On stage, and you see him speaking to thousands of people and you're like, man, that's amazing. And it's like, that's only a short snippet of ministry. You know what I'm saying? Like, that is only, that is the highlight of ministry. Okay. But the real ministry is in the trenches and it's in the streets and it's in the, you know, it's in the background. Yes, exactly. And, and not just our story, but like, you know, it's, it's those moments where you're interacting and engaging with people and praying with people and witnessing the people and sitting in meetings with people and brainstorming with people and, and, and being out on the front lines with people and in hospitals and the, you know, all this different stuff, man. And it's like, that is the true form of ministry. Looking on a TV or listening to a podcast and be like, you know what? Those guys, they're good, man. Or, you know, that sermon, man, that spoke to me and all of that good stuff. And it's like, yeah, it's, it's good. But ministry, ministry, ministry, ministry is not what you see on TV. It's everything, man, that is unfolding that is going on behind closed doors. And, and you know, that is the messy part of it. That is, that is why, again, you know, people, and it doesn't, it doesn't matter about position, whether it's church or job or whatever. It's like, before you say, man, that job looks good, know what goes into it, you know, know what, what, what transpires to get to that position and get to that point before you get there. Yeah, no, it's like that, that must be nice statement, you know, like where you're looking at somebody and you, they have something you want. It must be nice. Yeah, we're able to go on vacation must be nice. We're able to do a new car must be nice. Yeah. You know, but you know, again, you know, you're not looking at now again, it's not always a cut and trust scenario. I mean, you know, you're all that new car must be nice. Well, there are thousands of dollars in debt, right, you know, vacation. Oh, well, must be nice. Not really. I mean, they're in debt. Three, three credit cards later, you know, and that's not always the case. You know, some people have worked hard and got, you know, they have because of their hard work and time and every area. But, you know, you just have to be careful. I guess is what I'm trying to say. You have to be careful about saying that, you know, saying something like must be nice, you know, us sitting here on this stage looking, you know, doing this podcast, you know, looking at another successful Christian podcast, you know, who has thousands of downloads every week. You know, we can sit there and say, Oh, must be nice to have that kind of audience. But, you know, again, you know, we neglect everything that came before. I mean, it's what's crazy to me is, you know, I guess, you know, as I was younger growing up in churches, something that never even thought about, you know, to me, I was like, these churches have been here for years. They've been in place for years. You know, they just started up this big, you know, it's just like, it's just like, it's been, you know, like you take Russell Johnson started his in a barn with like seven people. Yeah, Craig Rochelle started in like the garage of a room with an overhead projector, a little slide things you had to flip. Yeah. You know, and now they all, you know, like, you know, Russell Johnson's pursuit in Seattle, Craig Rochelle's at Life Church with more campuses worldwide. Fertile, man. Fertile started in a, and I think it was a rented, like a rented building space, man, a couple hundred people. And now I mean, they're global. I mean, it's insane. Yeah, it's crazy. You know, you just, you don't, you don't see because we're, we're so conditioned as a society to see the success to see the short term to see the, and I think as a society, we've, we've, like, I almost want to say it's like that American dream that it's, it's all a big lie because I think we see the American dream as, you know, anything's possible and I can just get become an overnight success. And that's such a, such a small portion of society. Yeah, that ever experience it. And it's again, there's no such, I really don't think there is such a thing as overnight success. You know, there, there's a lot of people who have put in time and effort. Maybe they put it time and effort in the wrong place in life. Yeah. But it took them a lot of time and effort to get from this point into their actual passion and calling and purpose. Yeah. You know, you, you take, I, this is a random example, but like that, Miss Rachel Girl, that, you know, does the videos for kids, you know, I mean, she did stuff where she was teaching kids and all this stuff for years until she fell into this. And now she's making, you know, all this money doing, you know, these little silly videos on YouTube for kids. Yeah. You know, the only, the only, you know, I guess exception of that would be like those, you know, seven year olds who are on YouTube making millions of dollars. Like, I don't know how they got reviewing toys. Like, I don't know how they got one. Yeah. But again, you know, it's just, there's, you know, we, we neglect the process. And I think that's what we've been saying through this whole episode is that, you know, this, these blessings that we want, these successes that we want, uh, this, you know, salvation, you know, salvation's easy. It's the beginning point, but you know, the true faith takes effort. It's a process, you know, it's seeing progress is a process. You have to have faith in patience to do the process, to see the progress. Uh, and I think that's something that we as a, as a church, as a society, we all need to, to get on board with. And you know, as you were saying too, you know, one thing I'm very guilty of is always worrying about the future or the past. You know, I should have done this differently or, you know, I've got this going on tomorrow. I've got this going on next week. I got to figure out how to move money around and get this to work out so that way I can afford this next week, next month, next year. Um, you know, we're, we're always so worried, you know, got one step or one foot in the past, one foot in the future. I'm getting bottom up. I know it's rubbing off on you, man. It's contagious. Uh, but again, you know, I think it's just one of those things we need. I know I need to get better at is being more present in the moment and doing what I need to do today. It's not worth it. As the Bible says, you know, God, don't worry about tomorrow. Yeah, there's enough problems today to worry about it. You know, and so it's our job to take eat, take life a day at a time to do what we need to do today. And you know, if God blesses us with tomorrow, that's amazing. That's great. That's wonderful. Um, but if he doesn't, I did what I was supposed to do today. Right. Yeah. So two things I want to say really quick, man. And then we'll cut it. Number one, is you do what you want to do. Uh, and number two is, you know, the results you see will be directly related to the work you put in. I mean, simple as that. You do what you want to do. And if you want to see good results, put in good work, you know, and that's it. Um, and that is, that is, you know, across all facets of life, not just at your job, not just in your faith, but it's everywhere. Put in the results to me, put in the work for the results you want to see. Uh, and so, you know, just remember, we're all on this journey together. Uh, if you're listening to this and you're like, man, I'll tell you what, wish I was a better Christian. Don't we all, uh, you know, join the journey. And we'll get there one day together. Uh, but we're all on this journey together. We're all in different phases and processes and things like that. But, you know, don't let it keep you back, man, from, from working on yourself, working on your relationship with Jesus and, uh, reading the Bible and, and, and trying to get better on a daily basis. If you have any questions, any concerns, any comments directing towards Nick, uh, and I'm the complaint. We're right. There you go. Uh, but no, for real, if you have any questions or anything like that, you're like, how do you deal with this or what do you do for this or whatever, man? Don't be afraid. Shoot us an email. Don't be afraid, man. Leave us a message, whatever. We'll get back to it. We'll figure it out. Um, but again, thank you so much. Thank you for hanging in the trenches with us for a couple of weeks while we've been out. Uh, glad to be back. We love you so much. And until we see you again, be blessed. Even when you feel low, you can still go. Even when you feel slow, you can still go. Even when there's no hope, you can still go. I never ran so to know, man, I still go. As always, this is P.K.R. and for my sidekick, Nick, we say thank you very much for hitting that download button on people's suck level many ways. Be sure to tell a friend, tell a family member to hit that download button as well. And as always, we say thank you. Be blessed. Even when you feel low, you can still go. Even when you feel slow, you can still go. Even when there's no hope, you can still go. I never ran so to know, man, I still go. [Music]